Robots have been used for facilitating videoconferencing and remote communication. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,285 to SMITH (the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference) relates to a system including a robot having a swiveling video monitor, a speaker and a microphone, and a remote terminal unit having a microphone and a camera. In accordance with SMITH, a user at the remote terminal unit can operate the robot while voice and video signals are sent to the robot to be output on the robot's speaker and video monitor. The swiveling video monitor of the robot in SMITH can also be operated via the remote terminal unit.
In US Patent Application Publication 2006/0082642 to WANG, published Apr. 20, 2006 (the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference), a robot is used for two-way mobile teleconferencing between the robot and a remote control station. The remote control station of WANG communicates with the robot through a network, receiving video input from a camera on the robot, and the user at the remote control station can move the robot using the remote control station.
As another example, robots have also been used for companionship and remote caregiving. A mobile robot capable of facilitating telecommunication between a remote caregiver and a person in a home or other location, inter alia, is disclosed in US Patent Application Publication 2007/0192910 to VU, published Aug. 16, 2007 (which is incorporated herein by reference).
In order for the remote user to operate a mobile robot located in a home, building, or other location (such locations herein referred to as “premises”) distant from the remote user's location, a communicative channel is provided therebetween. Typically, at the premises where the mobile robot is located, there may be public telecommunication service connections that may be used as the communicative channel; such as, for example, the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”), cable television (“cable”), satellite television (“satellite”), and/or campus wireless Ethernet services (“WiFi”). At the remote user's location, which may be a home, an office, or a hotel, inter alia, there may be similar connectivity. Alternatively, the remote user may have access to mobile telephone-type service (such as GSM, CDMA, 3G, or the like) over which Internet communication is provided. Thus, one approach for connecting a remote terminal to a mobile robot is via an Internet protocol using universal datagram packet (UDP), transmission control protocol (TCP), and/or internet protocol (IP).
However, because many homes having a broadband connection to the Internet utilize a firewall or a network address translation system (hereinafter, “NAT”)—collectively referred to as a “firewall” hereinafter—difficulties can occur when the remote terminal attempts to connect to the mobile robot. One such difficulty arises because many firewalls prevent direct connections initiated by Internet hosts not protected by the firewall (hereinafter, “outside hosts”) to reach hosts located behind (i.e., protected by) the firewall (hereinafter, a “firewalled host”). Therefore, when the mobile robot is a firewalled host that is sequestered from incoming Internet connections originating beyond the firewall, it may not be possible for the remote terminal to initiate a direct connection with the mobile robot.
STUN and TURN are technologies that enable some incoming Internet connection initiation requests to “traverse” the firewall or NAT and successfully connect to firewalled hosts (see, for example, US Patent Application Publication 2007/0076729 A1 to TAKEDA, published Apr. 5, 2007; 2006/0209794 to BAE, published Sep. 21, 2006; and US Patent Application Publication 2007/0189311A1 to KIM, published Aug. 16, 2007, each of which are incorporated herein by reference). Nonetheless, even employing STUN and/or TURN, some kinds of incoming connection attempts may fail to reach firewalled hosts in certain kinds of network arrangements using a firewall or NAT.
For these reasons, among other, there has remained significant unmet demand for connecting a remote terminal to a mobile robot at a home or other such premises.